AL NAKBA - THE PALESTINIAN REFUGEES

Sunday, August 3, 2014

The Jewish history of Acre goes back to Roman times. During the Middle Ages, it became a major port and commercial trading center, as well as a major Torah center. In the 11th century, it was home to the great scholar, Rabbi Moshe ibn Kaskil of Mahdia, and in the 12th century, that of Rabbi Japhet ben Eliyahu. It was second in importance to Jerusalem and served as a disembarkation point for pilgrims. Under Haim Farhi, the second in command of the Acre district, the local Jews, along with the local Arabs, successfully fought off Napoleon’s armies and helped to drive him back to Egypt.

The Ramchal Synagogue in the Jewish Quarter in Acre, built in the 1740s and named after the Kabbalist Rabbi Moshe Haim Luzzato. It was a central place for the Jews of Acre

Arabs (presumably of Acre, but could also be of Haifa) getting ready for a bloodbath during the Arab riots of 1936-9.

The Jewish residents, who numbered 350 in 1936, abandoned the town when the Arab riots broke out that year.

Both Jews and Samaritans have lived in Awarta, south of Shechem, for centuries and the communities centered around the sacred tombs of Eleazar, Ittamar, and Pinhas, to where diaspora Jews have made pilgrimages since ancient times.

The Tombs of Eleazar and Pinhas at the turn of the last century

Both communities were expelled by the local Arabs actually in 1912 and the ancient pilgrimages almost ceased because of extreme Arab hostility. After the War of Independence, the town became part of Jordan which banned entrance to Jews, but it became reunified with Israel in 1967. Today, the Israeli authorities and the Arabs forbid Jews and Samaritans from living in the town and, like at Shechem, the ancient pilgrimages to the sacred local tombs can only be done late at night and in the wee hours of the morning.

The ancient pilgrimages to the Tomb of Ittamar as well as those of Eleazar and Pinhas continue to this day (in spite of all the obstacles). The Tombs are often vandalized by Arabs.

Jews have live in Ein Zeitim, on and off, for centuries. In the 16th century, it was one of the major farming communities in the Galilee. It also served as a place of refuge for the Jews of Safed during the Arab intifadas of the 1830s. The community was renewed briefly between 1891 and shortly before World War I.

After 1918 Ein Zeitim was resettled but was again abandoned and destroyed in the 1929 Arab riots. A few families subsequently returned but were forced to leave again in the 1936 riots. Today, Ein Zeitim is one the major recreation areas in northern Israel.

Jews have lived in Gaza for over 2000 years. For centuries, it was a farming and rabbinic community and in the Middle Ages, it was the first major city that pilgrims, coming from Egypt – Jewish, Samaritan, and Muslim – would encounter upon entering Palestine. Gaza was home to the 15th century Rabbi Solomon of Prague and the 16th century poet Israel Najara as well as Rabbi Avraham Azulai. In the 17th century, it was the focal point of a new spiritual movement led by Rabbi Nathan ben Elisha, known historically as Rabbi Nathan of Gaza, and the false messiah Shabbatai Zvi. By the time Napoleon’s army invaded Palestine through Gaza, the local Jews had been led by the Castel family for a long time. Upon Napoleon’s invasion, the French soldiers, along with the enthusiastic help of the local Arabs, began a process of expulsion of the town’s Jews and Samaritans. Even though the French forces were driven out of Palestine later that year, the expulsion process continued until the early 19th century when no Jew or Samaritan was left. It wasn’t until the 1880s that Jews resettled in the town and in 1890, an orchard was purchased nearby by one Tuvia Miller from Rehovot.

Jews were expelled again by the Turks during World War I but returned after the war. However, during the bloody Arab intifada in 1920-1, Jews began to flee for their lives, and during the next bloody intifada in 1929, the last Jews left the town for good. The orchard was abandoned during the 1936 Arab riots, but it wasn’t until 1946 that the orchard’s land was in Jewish possession again and the village of Kfar Darom was built in its place. It was destroyed during the War of Independence by the Arab army of Egypt but was resettled three years after the Six Day War in 1967. In 2005, it was destroyed again at the orders of the bloody Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Today, Kfar Darom and the communities around it remain in ruins and no Jew is permitted to set foot there. The formerly Jewish land, instead, has become a place where rockets are launched on Israeli communities in the Negev. Jews are also banned from reestablishing themselves in Gaza City where the local cemetery is used as a garbage dump and part of the ancient synagogue is used as part of a mosque. The Israeli government has no intention of rectifying this situation.

Hebron’s Jewish community is the oldest in the world. It is the burial place of the founders of the Jewish nation and also the first capital of David’s kingdom before it was moved to Jerusalem. There is, in fact, a debate over whether it is holier than Jerusalem or in second place.

After the Roman Empire split into east and west in the 4th century and Israel came under the eastern Byzantine Empire, persecution of the Jews grew apace. But the succeeding Arab period (638–1100) was a relief for the Jews of Hebron, as for the other Jews of Palestine. The community was centered around the Cave of Machpelah which was maintained by a Jewish family. In the 8th century, the Caliph Omar gave permission to the Jews to build a synagogue near the Cave, as well as a cemetery. At the beginning of the 11th century, a Karaite community was formed. Crusader rule (1100–1260) brought a temporary end to the Jewish presence in Hebron. However, it was still the focal point of Jewish pilgrims, among whom were prominent personalities such as Maimonides (1166), Benjamin of Tudela (c. 1171), Pethahiah of Regensburg (1176), and Jacob ben Nethanel (second half of 12th century). By the beginning of the 13thcentury, the Jewish community was reestablished, but the tolerant Muslim attitude toward the Jews which had existed in pre-Crusader times did not continue with the return of the Muslims to Palestine. In 1266 it was decreed that the Jews were not allowed to enter the Cave of Machpelah, and this decree was strictly enforced until the Six Day War in 1967. A Christian traveler who visited Hebron in the first half of the 14th century reported that "Christian and Jewish people are regarded by them [the Muslims] as dogs, and they do not allow them to enter such a holy place". The fortunes of the Jews fluctuated since then but in 1540, the community was put on a firm foundation by Rabbi Malkiel Ashkenazi. Since the time of Rabbi Ashkenazi, Hebron’s Jews have lived, especially vis a vis its relations with the local Arab community, through periods alternating between peace and persecution. During the Arab pogroms of 1929, the ancient Jewish community of Hebron was either massacred or expelled. The assault was well planned and its aim was well defined: ethnic cleansing. The rioters did not spare women, children, or the aged; the British remained passive. Sixty-seven Jews were killed, 60 wounded, the community was destroyed, synagogues razed, and Torah scrolls burned.

In 1931, 35 families returned and the community slowly began to rebuild itself, but everything was again destroyed in the pogroms of 1936 and the British authorities evacuated the Jewish inhabitants. This ancient community thus ended and only one inhabitant remained there until 1947 when even he was driven out.

In 1948 Hebron was incorporated into the kingdom of Jordan. It was recaptured by the Israeli army in the Six-Day War of June 1967, and Jews again returned, but only for visits - the Israelis banned Jews from living there; the old Jewish quarter was found destroyed and the Jewish cemetery almost obliterated.

On the eve of Passover 1968 a group of Jews went to reestablish the community. They encountered opposition both from the local Arabs and from Israeli officials as their move had not been authorized. (The Israelis had no intention of authorizing the reestablishment of the community, ever.) The Jews had to fight for official recognition and the right to rebuild the community. In May 1968 they were moved from their temporary quarters to the area occupied by the military government which became the town of Kiryat Arba, thus acquiring the protection of the government but not the right to engage freely in economic activity. Through the influence of Hebron's mayor Muhammed Ali al-Ja’barī, the town remained relatively quiet under the Israeli military government, although in 1968 and 1969 attacks on Jews occurred repeatedly. There were several attacks on Jews who came to pray at the cave of Machpelah, as well as arguments about the right to pray there.

Not all the local Jews agreed to move to Kiryat Arba, and in 1981 they moved to the old Jewish quarter, which had been abandoned during the 1929 riots, taking possession of Bet Hadassah and the adjacent buildings. Thus, the Jewish community in Hebron proper was reborn. But due to constant Arab and government harassment, their numbers were forced to remain at some 500 today and the Israeli authorities strictly prohibit any expansion and development of the community.

(information, though at times not word-for-word, taken from the Encyclopedia Judaica)

Jews have lived in Jaffa, on and off, for thousands of years. It wasn’t until the 18th century when, due to Arab civil wars and plundering, the Jewish community began to decrease. The community finally ceased to exist in 1799 with the invasion of the army of Napoleon Bonaparte. It wasn’t renewed until around 1820 when Yeshayahu Adjiman, a prominent banker from Constantinople established an inn for Jewish pilgrims. The community grew from that point onwards. The First Jewish suburb, Neve Tzedek, was founded in 1887, and in 1909, another Jewish suburb was founded – Tel Aviv. The greater part of the community was expelled by the Turks during World War I, but after the armistice, it began to renew itself. However, the Jews were forced to gradually desert the town following the riots of 1921, 1929, and 1936–39.

Arab riots, 1936

Some of the Jewish owned buildings destroyed by Arabs during the 1936-39 riots

some of the Jewish refugees from Jaffa, 1936

The town was entirely ethnically cleansed due to the Arab pogroms that resulted after the UN recognized Israeli independence at the end of 1947. Only after Israel won the War of Independence did Jews again settle there.

Jerusalem is the ancient and eternal capital of the Jewish people and Jews have lived in their capital, almost continuously, since the time King David made it so over 3000 years ago.

Jewish victims of the massacres in Jerusalem, 1920

Jews fleeing the Arab pogroms in Jerusalem, 1929

Jews fleeing the Arab pogroms in Jerusalem, 1936

In 1949, in the aftermath of the War of Independence when 5 regular Arab armies invaded, Israel was forced to divide Jerusalem between it and Jordan with Jordan taking the eastern half of the city along with its ancient Jewish Quarter and cemetery. It remained in this situation until the Six Day War of 1967 when Israel reunified the city. During the intervening period, eastern Jerusalem was ethnically cleansed of its Jews and Jews were banned from visiting their holy places, namely the Western Wall; the old Jewish Quarter was almost totally obliterated, and the ancient cemetery on the Mount of Olives was desecrated with its tombstones being used as building materials in road work and for making latrines.

Jewish refugees fleeing the Arab onslaughts in eastern Jerusalem during the War of Independence, 1948

Bird's-eye view of the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem during the Arab occupation, 1948-1967

Today, Jews can, once again, live in the eastern half of the city. But on the other hand, they also have to contend daily with Arab violence against them, especially around the Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives. The Israeli police don’t seem very interested in making the area a secure place for Jews.

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INTRODUCTION

For the record, I am Jewish, I don’t live in Israel (I’d rather live in a country where the government’s priority is actually to protect me from terrorism). I just want to make that clear.

Ever since the Balfour Declaration in 1917 from which Great Britain supposedly recognized Palestine as the national homeland of the Jewish people, numerous Palestinian Arab riots broke out and many Jews were attacked. These Palestinian Arabs claimed they were protesting the massive Jewish immigration to the country, but if that was true, then why were they also attacking the native-born Palestinian Jews as well?

The popular perception of Israeli history is one of the evil Jews coming from Europe, especially refugees from the Holocaust, settling in Palestine and taking land away from the Palestinians. It's an image that's a culmination of centuries of these types of images as depicted by such literary characters as Shylock, Svengali, and Fagan. Most everybody in the world considers the Arabs of Israel/Palestine to be indigenous to the region because they look indigenous to the region. And the Zionist movement actually helped to spread this type of perception: Jews coming to an empty land after a 2000 year absence, fighting the indigenous Arab marauders, and making the desert bloom.

The problem with that is, both these narratives are lies. Well, at least the Zionist narrative is a half truth – Jews did fight marauding Arabs and make the desert bloom. But let's take a look at the facts. There has never been a 2000 year absence. Jews have lived in Israel/Palestine for almost 4000 years, and those Jewish/Israelite families who have constantly lived in the country since Biblical times, the Mustarabim and the Samaritans, are the indigenous Palestinians.

It took years for the Israeli government to acknowledge that there were Jewish refugees from Arab countries (which was like extracting teeth) but it has yet to acknowledge that there were Jewish refugees from Palestine as well. For decades, Israelis have tried to make peace with the noble and deserving Arabs, while totally ignoring the indigenous and centuries-old Palestinian Jewish communities as if they didn't exist. In the rare cases when they were acknowledged, they were often characterized as lazy sub-humans.

Since no Israeli government or Jewish institution in Israel or the Diaspora has any intention of recognizing these Palestinian Jewish refugees, this blog will be dedicated to that purpose. There simply is no other choice and it’s the moral thing to do.

While one can go back to the 16th and 17th centuries to read about Palestinian Arab intifadas, pogroms, and persecutions causing a Palestinian Jewish refugee problem, this blog will deal with the period since the end of World War I up to today (with emphasis on the Arab intifadas/pogroms of 1920/1, 1929, 1936-1939, and the War of Independence 1947-1949) along with a short history of the various communities before that time. Just click on any community below for a brief description of events.